Recep Erdogan journalist savagely beaten by strangers in Turkey

Yavuz Selim Demirag, Journalist critical of the regime of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his nationalist allies, he was hospitalized this weekend after being brutally attacked in front of his home in Ankara.

The chronicler of the newspaper "Yenicag" was hit with baseball bats for about five or six people after his presentation Friday in a TV show, according to the newspaper Yenicag. The attackers escaped in a vehicle but were subsequently arrested by the police.

The journalist, meanwhile, was injured in the head and torso.

The reasons for the attack are unknown but have occurred in the middle of Tensions engendered by the decision of the highest election authority to eliminate the results of the March 31st Istanbul mayoral race, won by the opposition. The authority ordered a new vote for June 23.

Erdogan's party said the vote in Istanbul was tainted with fraud, but the position guarantees that the election committee pbaded the decision because of the pressure from the government, which desperately wants to maintain power in Turkey's largest city.

Demirag should be released in the next few hours.

Anyway, the attack was repudiated by social organizations and political leaders.

The Association of Journalists of Turkey reported that the beatings marked the decrease of the freedom of expression in the country. "Politicians who have difficulties with the idea of ​​freedom of expression and who turn the media and journalists into targets play an important role in this type of attack," he said. declared.

Demirag was visited by the leader of the opposition People's Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who won in the municipal elections in Istanbul, denounced the fact that the attackers wanted to kill him. He also noted that it was "a cowardly act (…) against freedom of the press and opinions".